Old Hickory

Jim Dollinger
Friday, September 26, 2008

Imagine a tree has been there for a hundred years, with deep roots, many branches, and beautiful leaves. Red Ink Ranger Rick comes along without any training or knowledge of forestry, strips it of it's bark, infests it with termites, brings in a flock of woodpeckers, and cuts off limbs with reckless abandon. Then the poor, tired old tree dies and falls over. Yet, some confused horticulturalists create a website on which they discuss the merits and benefits of Ranger Rick and how it really isn't his fault since the tree was there before he arrived and was getting old anyway, and how we need fewer trees.